Contraceptive mandate halted for Ala. broadcaster EWTN

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Image: MGN Online

Contraceptive mandate halted for Ala. broadcaster EWTN

Image: MGN Online

ATLANTA (AP) — A federal appeals court has temporarily barred the federal government from forcing a Catholic broadcasting network in Alabama to comply with a law requiring them to cover contraceptives for women.

Eternal Word Television Network, which has studios in Irondale, a Birmingham suburb, is appealing a federal judge’s order from last week dismissing its lawsuit, which maintained that requiring employers to include contraception in their health care coverage is unconstitutional.

“This has been a very good day for religious liberty in America,” said EWTN Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Michael P. Warsaw in a statement posted on EWTN.com. “The Supreme Court decision in the Hobby Lobby case was a great affirmation of the constitutional right to freedom of religious expression. While the Hobby Lobby decision did not directly resolve EWTN’s case, this afternoon’s injunction from the appellate court allows us to press forward without facing the government’s crushing fines.

“As we have said repeatedly, contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and voluntary sterilization are not health care and the government should not force EWTN to provide them as part of our employer-sponsored health plan.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta issued an order Monday barring enforcement of the requirement pending the outcome of the network’s appeal.

In granting an injunction, the 11th Circuit cited the U.S. Supreme Court opinion Monday that says corporations can hold religious objections that allow them to opt out of the new health law requirement.

6 comments

thank you hobby lobby for thking a stand on right they know who their maker and follower is these peolpe should pay for their own sins and not try to involved someone else to help them do what is wrong isaiah44.24 job 31.15-jerrmiah1.5 showes me when i read it that life begins at conception we forget the rights of the children but god dont they are souls people and they will be there on judgement when god ask you why you aborted them what will your answer be.america have gone by the way side on morals the bible says in proverbs 14.34 righteousness exalts a nation.but sin is a reproach to any people a lot of people like to follow the crowd or straddlle the fence the devil allways have the fence straddlers

Remi

Birth control does not equal sin. Some women (like myself) take birth control for medical reasons. I was put on bc pills at the age of 16 because I have PCOS. It had (still has) nothing to do “sinning” as you put it. But I wouldn’t expect for many people like yourself to understand that.

neanderthal

@remi Actually, a lot of us menfolk really do understand your need for bc meds to address a non-bc but reproductive tract related illness. Some of us lunkheads have wives who are just as sinless as you who suffer terrible pain unless they take the meds. Bless your heart.

Nuclear Mike

When it comes to a privately “closely-held” companies that have been created from hard work & sacrifice based upon the religious beliefs of the founders of the company, then this is a good decision by the Supreme Court.

Say What

Mikey, will you still sing that tune when a fundamentalist Muslim works hard and starts a company and wants to run it according to his Islamic faith? How about a Jehovah’s Witness that does not feel they should pay for blood products for their employees? There are many wacky religious views that can sneak into this ruling in the future.

Kat Von Clawswits

The point, Mikey, is that the companies impacted by this decision are privately held and are not publicly traded corporations. If a Muslim or Jehovah’s Witness wants to offer health care to his/her privately-held company’s employees according to his/her faith, then that decision does not cause medical remedies to magically disappear from the marketplace. Health insurance is stil available for employees that don’t care for the group coverage offered by their employer, or *gasp*, employees can purchase their own (fill in the blank). Furthermore, slavery ended over 200 years ago. If have issues with your employer, you are free to seek job satisfaction elsewhere.

The incessant whining from the Left when they are asked to take responsibility for their own lives is mind-numbing.